Jim Nabors

Nabors (at right) and Don Knotts in a publicity photo for The Andy Griffith Show (1964)

Nabors made his television debut as "Jimmy Nabors" on the Today in Dixie show on WJBF in Augusta, Georgia. He was active in the choir at Grace United Methodist Church in North Augusta.[15]

Andy Griffith discovered Nabors at The Horn and hired him to play a one-shot role of Gomer Pyle, a dimwitted gas station attendant on The Andy Griffith Show (Season 3, episode 13, "The Bank Job").[16] Nabors' character was based on his act at The Horn, and it became so popular that he was made a regular on the show and was later given the spin-off show Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., in which his character joined the Marines. The show placed Nabors' bungling, naive character opposite Gunnery Sergeant Vince Carter (Frank Sutton).

Gomer Pyle remained popular despite the concurrence of the Vietnam War because the show avoided war-related themes and instead focused on the character's rural roots and the relationship between Pyle and Carter.[17][18][19] Nabors resigned from Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. after five seasons because he desired to move to something else, "reach for another rung on the ladder, either up or down."[20]

Nabors first revealed his fine singing voice on the February 24, 1964, "The Song Festers" episode of The Andy Griffith Show and on April 8, 1964, on The Danny Kaye Show, and subsequently capitalized on it with numerous successful recordings and live performances.[21][22] Most of the songs were romantic ballads, though he sang pop, gospel, and country songs as well.[23][24][25][26]

The climactic vocal performance on Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. came in an episode titled "The Show Must Go On", aired November 3, 1967, in which Pyle sang "The Impossible Dream (The Quest)" in Washington, D.C., at a U.S. Navy relief show, accompanied by the Marine Corps Band. A clip from the show, in which Pyle says the tag-line "Surprise, surprise, surprise!" appears in the Pink Floyd album The Wall in the song "Nobody Home".[27] He hosted a variety show, The Jim Nabors Hour (1969–1971), which featured his Gomer Pyle co-stars Ronnie Schell and Frank Sutton.[28] Despite a poor critical reception, the show was popular[29][30] and earned an Emmy nomination.[31] After the cancellation of The Jim Nabors Hour, Nabors embarked on a nationwide roadshow.[32]

Typecast from his role as Gomer Pyle, Nabors found his subsequent roles mostly comedic.[23] In the 1970s, he appeared in the children's television program The Krofft Supershow. He appeared in every season premiere of The Carol Burnett Show, because Burnett considered him a "good-luck charm".[33] They were so close that he became the godfather to her daughter Jody.[34]

In a 1973 episode of The Rookies, he played his first dramatic role, a man called on to be an assassin after the death of his sister.[35][36] Also in 1973, Nabors sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" before Game One of the Major League Baseball World Series.[37] From 1977 to 1978, Nabors hosted another variety show, The Jim Nabors Show. Though the show lasted only one season, Nabors was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Host or Hostess in a Talk, Service or Variety Series.[38]

Nabors in 2001

Nabors eventually grew tired of the "prime-time TV grind" and abandoned television jobs for nightclub and concert engagements and a role in a touring production of Man of La Mancha.[26] However, Sid and Marty Krofft persuaded Nabors to star in the Saturday-morning children's television show The Lost Saucer, about two bumbling androids, Fi (Ruth Buzzi) and Fum (Nabors), who travel through time with two children. Nabors, whose character was described as a "Gomer Pyle in outer space", sang in a few of the episodes.[39] Nabors also guest starred on episode 6 of season 1 of The Muppet Show.[40]

In the 1980s, Nabors appeared in three feature-length films starring his friend Burt Reynolds, at the latter's request. In The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982), about a sheriff (Reynolds) who falls in love with a brothel madam (Dolly Parton), Nabors played Deputy Fred, a character similar to Gomer Pyle.[41][42] Though the film was given mostly unfavorable reviews, Nabors garnered some positive comments for his performance.[43]

In 1983, Nabors played an auto mechanic in Stroker Ace, starring Burt Reynolds who is a NASCAR race car driver who has a contentious relationship with his team owner, a fried-chicken fast-food chain entrepreneur. The film was panned, and Nabors earned a Golden Raspberry Award for his performance.[44] In Reynolds' star-studded Cannonball Run II (1984), about a cross-country car chase, Nabors made a cameo appearance alongside such celebrities as Dom DeLuise, Jackie Chan, Shirley MacLaine, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, and Andy Griffith Show co-stars Don Knotts and George Lindsey.[45] Like the two previous Reynolds films Nabors appeared in, Cannonball received mostly negative reviews.[46]

In 1986, Nabors returned to television, reprising his role as Gomer Pyle in the television movie Return to Mayberry, in which the cast of The Andy Griffith Show reunited.[47] Also in 1986, Nabors starred in the half-hour comedy pilot Sylvan in Paradise as the title character, Sylvan Sprayberry, an accident-prone bell captain at a Hawaiian hotel. The series was not picked up by NBC.[48]

Nabors at the Indianapolis 500 in 2008. For over 40 years, he sang "Back Home Again in Indiana" before the start of the race.

After moving to Hawaii from Bel Air, California, with his partner Stan Cadwallader in 1976, he launched a show, The Jim Nabors Polynesian Extravaganza at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, which ran for two years. Nabors eventually experienced "bright-light burnout" and disappeared from the stage, save for an occasional performance. In 1984, after a five-year hiatus, Nabors returned to performing, starring in the "Moulin Rouge" show at the Las Vegas Hilton and other shows in Reno and Las Vegas.[49] In 1982, he made his theatrical debut as Harold Hill in The Music Man with Florence Henderson at the Burt Reynolds Dinner Theatre in Jupiter, Florida.[50][51]

In 1994, Nabors suffered from a near-fatal case of hepatitis B. According to Nabors, he contracted the disease while traveling in India; he shaved with a straight razor and "whacked [his] face all up."[52] The disease caused liver failure, and Nabors was given a dim prognosis; however, his friend Carol Burnett made contact with the head of the liver transplant division of University of California, Los Angeles, and gave Nabors the information.[6] Nabors later became involved with the American Liver Foundation as a result of his experience.[53]

Shortly after recovering from his transplant, Nabors embarked on another tour, with stops in Phoenix, St. Louis, and Washington.[54] From 1997 to 2006, Nabors starred in the Burton White-produced A Merry Christmas with Friends and Nabors, a live performance at the Hawaii Theatre Center in Honolulu. The production, featuring local and national artists, ran for 40 performances and was directed by Tom Hansen until Hansen's death in 2006. The final performance run was directed by John Rampage and dedicated to Hansen.[55]

From 1972 to 2014, Nabors sang "Back Home Again in Indiana" with the Purdue All-American Marching Band before each Indianapolis 500 race.[56][57] In March 2014, Nabors announced that the 2014 Indianapolis 500 would be his final appearance, because health issues were limiting his ability to travel.[58] Since his retirement from this role, the singing of "Back Home Again in Indiana" was now done on a rotating basis (as it had been before Nabors became the regular performer), before a permanent replacement was named in Chicago Blackhawks anthem singer Jim Cornelison.

A longstanding rumor maintains that Nabors married actor Rock Hudson in the early 1970s, shortly before Nabors began his relationship with Cadwallader.[64] Not only was same-sex marriage not yet legal anywhere in the United States at the time, but the two closeted gay actors were, according to each other, never more than casual friends.[65] According to Hudson, the story originated with a group of "middle-aged homosexuals who live in Huntington Beach", who sent out joke invitations for their annual get-together.[65] One year, the group invited its members to witness "the marriage of Rock Hudson and Jim Nabors", at which Hudson would take the surname of Nabors' most famous character, Gomer Pyle, becoming "Rock Pyle".[64] The rumors spread, and because of this the two made sure they were never seen in public together.[64]